


frayed ends of twine

by 1001cranes



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Adoption, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-01
Updated: 2011-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 02:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001cranes/pseuds/1001cranes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kink meme fill - Charles and Erik adopt wee!Jean Grey. It would be cute if Erik spoiled her while Charles had to be the disciplinarian.</p>
            </blockquote>





	frayed ends of twine

Jean’s powers manifest so suddenly and so powerfully Charles doesn’t even need Cerebro to find her. She sends a psychic shockwave up and down the East Coast that has Charles snapping wide awake in the middle of the night, scrambling for the Blackbird while Erik is still muzzily searching for his pants.

“She’s too powerful to let wait,” Charles says, excited, only barely thinking of the implications of danger, as ever. “We have to find her before someone like Emma does, or she hurts someone, or herself. She’s – my god, Erik, she could do anything she could think of.”

That Jean Grey is a recently orphaned five year old is not what either of them expects, though Charles is easily the more puzzled.

“I sensed something – old in her,” he says, “ancient, even.” He brightens after a moment. “Much like Ororo.”

“Ah,” Erik says. “I understand.” Ororo is eleven, and he already feels she constantly judges him, and finds him wanting. The worst part is how much it _bothers_ him. “What are we going to do?”

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is just that – a school, not a foster home. Though Charles is incredibly persuasive at convincing parents to send their children there, as well as having a lot of luck in snagging the older children – unwanted children, Erik thinks, not unkindly – from the system, no one is going to let a tiny, unspeakably adorable redheaded child go, even one with behavior issues. It’s a tricky situation. They’ve never found a mutant this powerful before – certainly not at five years old. They can’t leave her.

“We could adopt her!” Charles suggests, eyes bright.

“Have you actually gone completely insane,” Erik asks, which is vaguely ridiculous in itself because he already knows the answer.

“Just listen!” Charles says, and Erik knows he’s doomed.

| |

Jean Grey is, indeed, tiny, redheaded, and adorable. She’s also frightfully intelligent, a mini-tyrant in the making, and Erik somehow finds himself exceedingly charmed.

“Jean,” he says soothingly. “You can’t just make Hank shave off all over his fur.”

Her nose wrinkles. “His head is noisy. He’s always thinking about how hot he is, but when he showers he keeps thinking about how he smells like wet dog.”

“Then _you_ must practice your shielding,” Charles says sternly. “Not make Hank do things he doesn’t want to do.”

“What if I make him want it?” Jean says, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms.

“Then he didn’t really want it, did he,” Charles tries, much more patiently than Erik is able. A shorn Beast is, well – far too hilarious to contemplate, and even though Erik keeps a straight face, he knows Jean has his number. “You are going to go apologize, and then we are going to work on your shielding. For an hour!” he threatens, and Jean’s face erupts into a flush of rage.

“Fine,” she grits out, but not before the pictures all up and down the hall slam themselves against their hooks. “I’m going right now!” And she stamps her little feet all the way up the stairs.

Charles turns to look at him, as utterly bowled over as Erik has ever seen him.

“This was all your idea, remember,” Erik tells him.

“Yes, well,” Charles clears his throat. “I somehow thought you were going to be the bad parent, so to speak.”

Erik laughs until his stomach hurts. The ethics, the discipline, he leaves to Charles.

With Jean, Erik sees nothing but possibility.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] frayed ends of twine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/931659) by [1001cranes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001cranes/pseuds/1001cranes), [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins)




End file.
